About to purchase some osage lumber, got some questions for yall...

[toomanyknots]

I'm wondering, I'm thinking I might be purchasing a big hunk of green osage lumber tomorrow, from about 118 miles away, god help me.  The dimensions are somewhere around 3" thick, 6" to 10" wide, and around 8 feet (hopefully) long. The man said it was cut about 6 weeks ago. Hrmmm. What should I do with it yall? Cut it out, and have it warp on me, or let it stay thick, and have it slowly check it's self to death on me?  I wanna rip at least a couple smaller pieces and speed dry em if I can, I need a hot box or something. I am think maybe just maybe if I cut em small enough they won't check. Have I lost my mind?

[bushboy]

Don't know any thing bout curing osage,but if you plan on backing it with something like boo,belly grain dose matter!I had a highly reflexed one completly fret out on me cuz the grain was terrible or maybe it just was me!lol!

[Joec123able]

Well all I got to say is that Osage checks worse then any wood I've worked with

[Hamish]

 See if you can get the seller to re saw it for you. If you're going to use it for boards best to sticker it and stack it for drying, to stop warping.   
 I have bought 2" stuff that was entirely coated with wax that was fine.
I usually coat my thicker boards that I cut with Pva, at least 2 coats. Quarter saw the stuff I cut myself, to reduce movement.

If you leave it in a large section you might get away with it if you live in a cool region, but still coat it with glue.

[Blaflair2]

Paint the ends and put 1x2 in between layers and sit and wait

[toomanyknots]

Where do I coat it? Everywhere?   

[Joec123able]

So you're cutting it into boards ?? Are you not a fan of stave bows ? I'm just wondering

[Blaflair2]

It's already cut he said. I'd just paint the ends and stack it. Shouldn't check too bad if the ends are sealed well

[toomanyknots]

Okee Dokey, thanks guys,  .

[PatM]

Are you certain this board is worth getting? I've seen some Osage boards and not a single one had a straight grain line worth mentioning.

[DLH]

I would use parrafin for the ends works well for sawed 4x4 squares of other woods.

[Hamish]

Paint the glue all over the surfaces. 3 x 8" likes to check. I'd coat anything even 1" if its hot weather.

[mikekeswick]

My local hardwood specialist recently got some very big slabs of osage. He was very keen to show them to me, thinking I was going to buy them all! However not one piece had good enough grain. Just cos it's osage don't tempted to buy unless the grain is straight.

[blackhawk]

Resaw......seal ALL surfaces...stack em with spacers in between stored in the right environment,and put a lil weight on top of the last ones....shellacs the best for this...

[toomanyknots]

I honestly have no idea what they look like, but the price is right (thank you craigslist, ) and I am in need of some osage lumber. The pictures actually look super clean, but ain't no telling what the wood could be hiding inside of it of course. Thanks everybody for the advice. So what I should do is:

- Cut em out
- Stack em up with spacers
- And seal em up, most likely using shellac?

I think I might be headed down there later on this week.